40 in Italian
Nearby Italian Numbers
40 in Other Languages
About 40 in Italian
In Italian, 40 is written and spoken as quaranta. The ordinal form — used for rankings, dates, and sequences — is quarantesimo.
In mathematics, 40 is even. You'll encounter 40 in Italian in many practical contexts: shopping, transportation, appointments, and everyday small talk.
Building fluency with numbers like 40 in Italian pays dividends quickly. Numbers are among the first things you use in a new language — for shopping, directions, introductions, and understanding announcements.
Learning Numbers in Italian
What makes Italian numbers challenging
Italian numbers are mostly regular but the teen split (11-16 vs 17-19) and the vowel-dropping in compounds (ventuno not ventiuno, ventotto not ventiotto) create small traps. Phone numbers can be read either digit-by-digit or as groups of hundreds, and you never know which style someone will use. The varying grouping style means a single number might be read as "trecentoquarantasette" (347 as one word) or "tre-quattro-sette" (3-4-7).
Tips for learning Italian numbers
Master the teen split first: 11-16 end with -dici, but 17-19 start with dici-. Learn which vowels drop in compounds (before uno and otto). Practice recognizing numbers both digit-by-digit and as spoken groups, since Italians switch between styles freely. Italian numbers have a musical quality — the rhythm and melody of the language helps with memorization. Prices, train platform numbers, and addresses make great real-world practice.